Happy Friday everyone! This week was a little rough with sweetie pie here being sick (slowly recovering now). So I don’t have a lot prepared in the way of Friday Favorites, but here are a couple things I’ll share today.
1. Andie Turned 2! I’ll do a blog post later on her second year of life in more detail, but I just wanted to show you guys a couple pics I snagged of her on her birthday yesterday, and to tell you what a joy she has brought to our life. She’s becoming so much more independent and opinionated, and learning how to verbally express what she’s thinking. I remember wondering when she was finally going to start saying “Mama”, and now one of my favorite things is when she says really emphatically, “Mama! Mama! Look!!” and then shows me something she thinks is amazing.
2. Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Bars: I mean, really any kind of ice cream will make me happy, but ooh, these are really good! Normally, I just go for whatever ice cream is on sale that week, whether that’s Turkey Hill, Friendly’s, Breyer’s, whatever. But last week when I was grocery shopping, I decided to splurge a little bit and try these, as a little birthday treat to myself. And also because they were part of a special rewards points deal with my grocery store, (which I’ll explain below). So I figured, why not, and boy are they good! And calories don’t count on your birthday, right? ;)
3. Giant Grocery Store App: So I know not everyone has Giant food stores around them, but I’m sure other stores have their own rewards programs. I just thought I’d share this one, because I’ve been really enjoying taking advantage of some good grocery deals with it. And in addition to deals on groceries, you can also save big at the gas pump. I only recently started taking advantage of this when a Giant to Go gas station opened up near my house a little while ago. I downloaded the store’s app for my phone, where you can find a ton of digital coupons and you can check out the weekly store ad on the app and mark which deals you want to “clip” and also add them to your shopping list in the app. And typically, there will be one or two physical coupons I can use from the weekly flyer that comes in the mail, some which double or triple your rewards points. And then in the weekly ad, there are often ways to snag an extra 400 or 500 points just by purchasing a few select items in a certain category. That brings me back to the ice cream bars. Those Haagen Dazs bars in particular were part of a deal to get an extra 500 points, so I mean, any excuse for ice cream, right? Haha. Anyway, every 100 points earns you $0.10 off a gallon of gas. So in the last almost 2 months, we had racked up with discounts, 2,500 points. So when I filled up my car last week, it only cost me $0.61. Crazy right?! I know lots of people shop at the various discount grocers around the area, which I will do on occasion. But I’m kinda partial to Giant, since they have such a huge selection and I know whatever I need, I’ll find it there and not have to run around to more than one place. So if you do happen to use Giant most of the time, definitely check this out!